You Gotta Take a Few Wrong Turns (A Somewhat Johnny Cade Love Story)
by LiveFoREVer93
Summary: Not written by me! I'm posting this because the site I got it from is closing the 1st of next month. I hope you all enjoy it anyway! Kelcie Valentino, the fourth Greaser girl, goes through being in love with Johnny with no signs back, and keeping her relationships with the other Greasers. Rated T just in case
1. Chapter 1

Kelcie Valentino, the fourth Greaser girl, goes through being in love with Johnny with no signs back, and keeping her relationships with the other Greasers.

Conformity makes me sick. It's all a bunch of wrong turns that everyone takes to be like the next guy. Why not be your own person and do whatever you want? I know, far taking wrong turns happens, but I hate when it does and I try my hardest to avoid it. Wrong turns are the epitome of anger, frustration and confusion, and the friends and neighborhood I was born into was the biggest wrong turn anyone could ever take.

My friends were all very nice people, and they were always on the lookout for everybody else. There was very little time when one of my friends would think about themselves, and it bothered me that they were all so sweet. They all loved me, though, which I suppose is a good thing, but not always. Sometimes when ten close friends love you, it can get very stressful and hard to deal with.

The thing that was hardest about the neighborhood I was born into was how awful and wrecked-up it was. Everyday there were countless fights and it was really trashy. The houses were small and run-down, and almost everyone came from a broken family. Everyone but my friends and me. As far as our blood families went, mine was pretty happy, but some of us were emancipated minors, orphans, had abusive parents, or a single parent whose father left their mother with two kids. But I had two parents and a little brother, and even though they could be annoying, they were all amazing.

However, there were benefits to growing up with so many selfless friends, like romance. Seven of my friends were guys, and good-looking guys at that. I was pretty much in love with one of the guys for a while, and I just knew he wasn't going to be a mistake.

All the days I spent with my friends could be fun, but then we'd always get into these fights. My three very best friends were all girls in my grade, and we had all known each other since birth. Sometimes, like I said, they could be awesome, amazing, and I'd want to have no one else, but then out of the blue, we'd start yelling at and teasing each other.

One day, when I was in seventh grade, I was walking home from school with two of the girls and two of the guys. We never walk alone because we're Greasers, and by being a Greaser, you're low-life trash. Of course, there is the chance of being beat up by a few Socs, the other gang in our city that absolutely hates us, and we absolutely hate them. Therefore, the hatred works out almost harmoniously. Anyway, we were all walking and we just had to bring up the missing girl.

"Where's Lucy?" asked one of my friends, Becky Harrison. She was tall, kind of thin, and really pretty. Her eyes were big and ice blue, which made me jealous. But I figured there was no reason, because in the long run, I'll do better than she does somehow.

"I think she was with Michael," Ponyboy Curtis answered. Ponyboy is Lucy's (missing girl) older brother, and he's older than us by one year. Actually, he's older than me by a year and half, but let's not get technical.

Another Greaser guy, Johnny Cade, made this disgusted face. My heart jumped when I looked at him. Truth is, I've been in love with Johnny for a long time, and how could I not be? He's totally gorgeous with his black eyes, black hair, and tan skin. The only reason why Johnny hadn't proclaimed his love for me was the age difference. I wasn't even thirteen and he was sixteen. I just knew if I were three years older, Johnny and I would be all over each other. All I had to do now was reach the right age. But why couldn't he be interested in me now? After all, I was fairly cute, funny, smart as a whip, and even though I lived for gossip, I had a sweet and tender side. Why wasn't that getting to him?

I decided to speak up and talk about Lucy and this Michael guy. It was a way to get Johnny to notice me. "What I don't understand is why Lucy has to go out with a Soc," I complained, glancing over at Johnny to see if he was looking at me. "Boys have never really liked her. She's not the type of girl a million guys are going to run up to and ask out. Now me, I've had plenty of guys ask me out, and I've turned them all down because I'm waiting for the right person."

Okay, that was kind of a lie. Boys have liked Lucy, and I just know they have. The thing I still didn't get was why Lucy? Sure, she was nice, funny, pretty and smart, which is what makes a great girl, but she wasn't all that. Some guys just failed to see that right next to her was her personality twin, me.

And I haven't really been asked out plenty of times. There were these two geeks who were obsessed with me, and they did ask me out three times each, but I never usually count that. Why, you may ask, did I count that today? Because I wanted Johnny to realize that I was worth it! We had known each other since I was born, but we didn't know each other as well as we could, so there was almost no way he could have known I was lying about the times I've been asked out just to impress him.

"Well, I've liked Lucy before," Johnny admitted. "Can't imagine anyone who wouldn't. She's really pretty and really smart. Always been nice, too. Ponyboy, you've got one great sister."

So it wasn't the age factor that made Johnny so disengaged! Then again, he was Johnny, the pet of the gang, scared of everything. He was the only person I felt bad for, because he had been beaten pretty badly by his parents and some Socs. Yeah, that's right, Johnny's the one with the abusive parents. Sometimes I wish he would just leave them and stay with me.

I'm getting back to my point now. Johnny and Lucy are three years apart in age, and he just admitted to being in love with her? Why? She's his best friend's little sister who's three years younger! And, not to mention, his best friend's little sister has an adorable, single best friend! But he had to go and notice Lucy! There's nothing special about Lucy Curtis!

"Lucy's amazing," Ponyboy agreed. "She can get on my nerves, but I still love her to pieces."

Enough of this! Enough of Lucy! I pouted and added, "I've been asked out at least three times this month, but I'm still turning everyone down." Now that was a total lie. I had been asked out six times in total, but they had been spread out time wise.

"Come on guys," I continued. "Let's go home so we can actually do something."

I got in the middle and Ponyboy and Johnny stood on both sides of me. Ponyboy was kind of wimp, I had to admit it. And okay, Johnny was probably a little weaker than he was. But I did know that if something dangerous was happening and I was sandwiched between Johnny and Ponyboy, Johnny would try his best to help me and protect me. Unless, of course, Lucy was around. Then he'd take a knife for her and leave me lying there, dead.

One of my other best friends, tall and also very pretty Jacklyn Moore had pulled Becky aside, whispering and sometimes looking over at me. Of course they were talking about me, but I didn't care. I could always start a nasty rumor about Jacklyn tomorrow at school, and then try to counsel her out of her embarrassment like I hadn't said anything. That was my talent, being mean to people and then helping them get through their hard times like a therapist. It's good to be sneaky!

Ponyboy turned around and called to Jacklyn to hurry up. Then she and Becky did what I wished they hadn't. They sped up and Jacklyn jumped on Ponyboy's back, which means Becky had to jump on Johnny's. He picked her up and gave her a piggyback ride, which made me incredibly angry. Maybe now it was time to think of a second rumor to start. Any competition with Johnny made me extremely angry and nervous, and I wanted to wipe out all of it. Who knew who the girl was that Johnny could be in love with right now? It could be Becky and it could be Lucy… it could be some Soc he'd only seen for two shakes of a second in the hallway!

I stared at Becky, wishing I could drill a hole through her body. She didn't have to jump on Johnny's back! In fact, there was no reason for her to jump at all! I still stood there, giving her a dirty looking, hoping she'd get the message.

"Kelcie, would you relax?" she asked me, laughing. "You look like you're gonna break all the blood vessels in your face!"

"I won't relax as long as that's happening," I hissed.

"Man, you know I'm not in love with Johnny."

"That doesn't mean he can't fall in love with you."

Silence. Good, now Becky had time to think over if she wanted to have a guy actually fall at her feet, or keep the best friend she had all her life


	2. Chapter 2

"So how was your day?" Jacklyn asked as we walked home from school to the Curtis house, like we always did. When Jacklyn asked how our days were, I moaned on the inside. She's always been known to start really stupid conversations. I swear, she's actually used that, "What did you think of the pop quiz today?" desperate conversation starters.

Lucy, the missing girl from three years ago (now we were high school sophomores, fifteen and sixteen) tossed her long dark brown hair across her shoulder. It made me want to gag. Why did she have to act so perfect all the time?

"Fine," she said in response to Jacklyn's question, "and the pop quiz was really hard, because I knew that'd be your next question."

Great. She was clairvoyant too. There was nothing she couldn't do, but I just knew I'd be better than her one day!

"Why does math even have to exist?" Becky complained. She and Lucy were the perfect ones, always getting favoritism from teachers and the guys, and everyone loved them. No wonder they were best friends. I now had two people to overrule when I took over their throne as the better ones. And Jacklyn, poor Jacklyn was just the underdog. I'd have her be my personal assistant, just so she could look better. What guy wants a girl who cries at sad AND funny movies?

"You should learn how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, configure fractions and percents, and then just have literature through the rest of school," Becky continued.

"I agree," I confirmed, mainly because I did, "Math is torture, and I hate it!" We laughed at each other, because none of us were very good at math, especially Lucy. There, that was one thing I had over her. Because of my conciseness, I had an A in math, while Lucy had a lowly C. Numbers would be what makes the world go round in the end, and words will be long forgotten.

"What can I say?" came a guy's voice from behind us. "None of the Greasers are good at math." It was Ponyboy.

Wow, I had to admit, over the last three years, he had gotten pretty cute. His hair was dark again, as opposed to that blonde he had to dye it when he was in that "spot", and his blue-green eyes were a good look on him, but the eyes on Lucy just made me want to give her my ugly, pale blue ones.

Some time last year, Lucy said that if Ponyboy weren't her brother, she'd date him. How dare she do that? There was no way she could get a boyfriend before me, and he'd be my first because I was still ready to make Johnny jealous.

"Hey Ponyboy," Jacklyn said, batting her eyelashes, "do you want to join in on one of my stupid conversations?"

Oh gosh. She had turned around and now she was in love with him. Nice going, Jacklyn. Once he falls in love with you, I'll have no hope in trying to make Johnny jealous. No one could see what I wanted around here!

"No thanks, Jacklyn," he declined, laughing. "I'm too intelligent for that."

See that? Flirting! I wanted to flirt like that with Johnny, but he was too quiet and too afraid to start acting like he was in love with me.

They trailed behind us, and I walked in between Becky and Lucy. But instead of thinking of how stuck up and awful they could be, I treated them like they were my friends, which they were, but it's hard to be friends with perfect people. For Greasers, you can say that these two girls have it made. Both of them had gorgeous guys falling at their feet (whether they noticed it or not), and those guys just happened to be the ones they were interested in themselves! But that really wasn't what I was getting at. We were gossiping about the budding romance going on between dear Jacklyn and Ponyboy.

"I had no idea she liked him," Becky whispered.

"Neither did I," Lucy added.

"She didn't until about five minutes ago," I spat back. "Though, I did know it was going to happen sooner or later. It's Jacklyn and Ponyboy, for Pete's sake, they've always looked like they were kind of into each other."

"You know what, Kelcie?" Lucy asked. "You're right. Beck, turn around and see what they're up to."

Becky nodded and joked, "Aye-aye, boss." She turned her head to look at Jacklyn and Ponyboy, slacking off behind us.

"They're taking turns shoving each other to the sides and laughing at each other. I wanna know what's so funny!" Becky informed.

For someone so smart, Becky really didn't have a clue what was going on. "She's not laughing because he's funny, she's laughing because he's cute!"

"Well, I mean, I kinda knew that," she defended herself with. How couldn't she know that?

"My brother is cute?" Lucy asked, wrinkling her nose. "Please, I can understand why girls have fallen for Sodapop, but Ponyboy? Maybe it's because we're so close in age that I can't see it. But ever happiness to the both of them!"

I laughed, and it was actually pretty funny. "Lucy, you don't know that they're gonna last forever. It's Jacklyn, it'll pass."

"Kelcie, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Becky contradicted. "I mean, I can't remember any time where Jacklyn has been in love, and I'm not so sure it'll pass. Think about it. Love hasn't passed over you, me, or Lucy."

Lucy's eyes got wide, and then they narrowed at Becky. "Love hasn't passed over me? Since when am I in love?"

"You've been in love for three years, don't deny it," I clued Lucy in on. "We all know you have."

"I still don't get what you're talking about. If you're talking about Dal, I'll have you know it lasted for no more than one week, and I'm completely over it. Well, other than when I see him and sometimes the feelings come back, but I'm over it. In fact, I was never on it. Once Michael broke up with me, I swore off men for the rest of my life."

"You can say what you want but we all know that's not true," Becky teased in a singsong voice. "I think I'm gonna go tell Jacklyn to run up here with us."

She did, and in a blink of an eye, Jacklyn was slowing down her jog to walk with us. But she didn't come alone! Ponyboy was running next to her, and they were hand-in-hand. So even though he was an older man, he was willing to make a move on Jacklyn, but Johnny wouldn't make a play for me? What the hell was wrong with him?

There was a lot of flirting before we got to Lucy's, and then we called one of our girl talks. We needed to pump Jacklyn for all that information! Why? When? Where? And then, of course, we had to re-ask why!

"I hate girl talks," Ponyboy complained when we told him we were leaving, "for some reason, I'm never included."

Lucy called him a dumb ass, and we trailed into her room. I started my interrogation with my W questions.

"Spill!" I shouted. "Why? When? Where? Did I ask why?"

"Only twice," Becky muttered, and I shot her one of my famous dirty looks. That shut her up.

Jacklyn told us that she didn't know when, and then Lucy and Becky told her that they'd make a great couple. I said nothing because I had no idea how good of a couple they'd make. Finally, something happened that made me know that Lucy wasn't perfect. She was in denial.

"It's not going to pass," Becky said in between her laughs when Jacklyn said that she'd wait it out.

"What do you mean, it's not going to pass?" Jacklyn asked. "I'm fifteen, I'm gonna have plenty of crushes. Who knows if he's really the one? How am I supposed to know?"

"The same way Lucy and I knew," Becky explained. Hmm, I noticed how she didn't include me. Did she really think that I wasn't truly in love with Johnny?

"Wait, Beck?" Lucy asked, being that fake-friendly that she hardly ever was. "What did I know?"

"Oh, don't be stupid, Lulu, you know what you knew."

"No, really, I don't."

"Stop playing dumb and accept the fact that you're head over heels crazy in love with Dallas Winston!"

Yep, there's a guy in Lucy's life, and his name is Dallas Winston. He's the Dal mentioned earlier, and it's clear that she's had feelings for him since that day Michael the Soc dumped her. But that proved that Lucy was a little naïve, which proved that she wasn't perfect!

"Becky, stop," I offered. "If Lucy wants to play naïve, which she's not, let her. She'll come to her senses sooner or later." There, I added the "which she's not" because I didn't want them to know that this was what I had against Lucy now. This could be my secret weapon.

"We should probably go outside," Jacklyn suggested. "The guys are probably looking for us."

"Yeah, maybe Soda will be there to proclaim his love to Becky!" I mocked her.

"Oh, Kelcie, don't you wish Johnny would say the same?" she came back with.

I said nothing to that, because I was wondering what I could do to make Becky believe that I was in love with Johnny and he was in love with me, just not showing it.

"Don't," Lucy warned me, and I stopped thinking about what to do with Becky for a while. I saw Johnny and my whole thoughts changed on a dime.

I walked up to him, acting pretty sweet, and said, "Hey Johnny. How're you?"

"I'm okay, I guess," he answered, looking at the grass instead of me. Great, not only had he spent his time staring at Lucy, he was now more interested in the lawn than me.

"Socs giving you a hard time?" I asked, even though I probably shouldn't have. Oh well, we needed some conversation if he was going to be my husband in the future.

"Always have, always will. Not to mention always are. Things are pretty hard for me you know that? My parents either ignore me or hit me, and the Socs never give me a break either. You think they'd catch on, think that I'm a little more dangerous than I look, but no. They think the way I killed that guy was just a fluke."

Yep, that's me, in love with a murderer. It's not as bad as "I killed him because his eyes scared me" like in "The Tell-Tale Heart", but it's still murder. Anyone would have been charged because the Socs almost killed Ponyboy, but Johnny beat them to the punch. But the fact that he would only talk about himself made me so mad!

"Ugh!" I shouted. "Johnny, can't you talk about anything other than yourself?"

He just sat there, looking at me, then back to the ground. What was it about me that made him ignore me so much?

"Sound familiar, Kelcie?" someone asked. Shit. It was Two-Bit Mathews, the guy in our gang who's always giving me an awful time. He teases me nonstop; mostly about the way I see things. So what if I'm a little high-maintenance for a Greaser? That sure is better than bumming around and drinking all the time like he does.

"Shut your face, you dumb ass!" I screamed at him. He walked over to me, laughing like the drunken idiot he was. Why he couldn't just like me the way everyone else did escaped me.

"Yeah, when are you gonna start shutting yours?" he taunted.

I glared at him, and then looked at Johnny in that ever-so-sweet look I hardly ever gave. He looked away and then called for Ponyboy. It just wasn't fair that he was into the guys and the other girls, but not me. I knew one day Johnny was going to notice me, but when and how? I didn't know what his opinion of me was going to be after a bit of an explosion I had later on. But other things happened with my other relationships, the ones with my friends.

"Johnny makes me so angry!" I groaned when we got back into Lucy's room.

"Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad!" Becky sang. It was some song that was popular a few years back, and when we first heard it, the girls gave me the worst time.

"Shut up, Beck," I snapped. "Don't you guys care why he makes me angry?"

"Okay," Lucy offered, "why does he make you angry?"

"Because he only wants to talk about himself to me!" I whined. "I mean, all I hear is 'I have it so hard' and it's all basically 'me, me, me, me, me!'"

"People like to talk about themselves," Becky replied.

"Again, shut up! But Johnny is so annoying when he does that! When he's not talking about himself, he's too quiet! He needs to get tough if he ever wants to get a woman, especially if he wants me."

"Well, maybe he doesn't," Lucy said. "If you loved Johnny, you'd take him in any way, shape or form."

If I loved Johnny? How could she believe that I didn't love Johnny? I had talked about him all the time forever, and I didn't love him? For someone so smart, Lucy obviously couldn't see the obvious.

I looked at Jacklyn, who hadn't said anything. She just sat there on the floor, rocking back and forth slightly and looking like she was going to upchuck everything she'd ever eaten in all her fifteen years.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"Nothing," she answered. "Just really tired. I've had a pretty eventful day, if you know what I mean."

"Come on, let's go back outside," Becky suggested. "Those guys are like grass- you become addicted!"

"Ha-ha," Lucy said sarcastically, "but Becky is right. Jacklyn, let's get you out there to my brother, who is surprisingly the love of your life now."

Sure, Ponyboy was the love of Jacklyn's life, but Johnny, the love of mine, wasn't giving me the time of day. But I just knew it would get better as time passed!


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, knock-knock!" Two-Bit started. Oh great. This couldn't be anything other than a crack at my new skirt or new haircut, which I loved. I'd be changing it the next day, however, when Two-Bit made me look bad in it and everyone would laugh at me.

"Who's there?" Johnny asked, sighing. With his sigh, I followed it up with a sigh of my own. I was still madly in love with him, but he still hadn't admitted that he loved me.

"Orange," Two-Bit continued.

Fabulous, he was using orange. He'd follow it up with something like, "Orange you glad you didn't see that skirt first?" or "Orange you glad you don't have Kelcie's haircut?"

"Orange who?" Ponyboy asked, groaning along with everyone else. Here it came, and that gave my license to kill the one who made the joke.

"Orange you glad you didn't see Lucy and Dallas eating each other's faces off?" Two-Bit ended his joke with. Lucy and Dally together? They were kissing? She hadn't flirted with him since she was thirteen, and even though we all knew that Dal felt the same way about her, they never acted on it. Until now, I guess.

I started to look at Johnny, wondering why he hadn't kissed me yet. The age difference between us was three years, which is one year less than Lucy and Dally. She's eighteen and he's twenty-two, which is obviously a four-year difference. Suddenly, I became extremely jealous and wanted a guy all for my own, and of course Lucy had to be the first one to have that.

"Wait a minute," I said, making sure the sharpness intended was in my voice, "you guys were kissing?"

"Yeah, what did you think it meant?" Two-Bit asked. "You feel like giving in a whirl with me?"

"In your dreams," I barked back. So, he was physically attracted to me, but Johnny couldn't care less? Things were so confusing when you're as different as me.

"We didn't want to come in and just start screaming about it," Dally explained coolly, "because then you all would have charged at us."

"So, did you kiss or not?" Jacklyn asked. She obviously couldn't understand the deceit behind this, and how I was still angry that yet again, Lucy beat me with her love life as well. Poor underdog Jacklyn was still interested in how "cute" of a couple Lucy and Dally would make.

"Yes, Jacklyn!" Becky snapped. "I thought we established that when Two-Bit started hitting on Kelcie."

Two-Bit seemed to mouth something to Becky, and she nodded. Hitting on me? A guy who was so evil and cruel to me was hitting on me? Why me?

"Shut up!" Johnny piped up from out of nowhere. He said shut up! It could mean that he couldn't take the arguing, or that he didn't want Two-Bit hitting on me because he wanted me for himself! I was already taking bigger steps in one day!

"Just so you all feel satisfied," Lucy started, "Dally and I did kiss. Twice, as a matter of fact. Two-Bit, which kiss did you happen to see?

"The one where Dally told you he loved you and you told him you loved him. That one lasted about five minutes," Two-Bit clarified.

Five minutes? God, I hadn't even gotten five minutes alone with Johnny to TALK! This wasn't good for anyone's health! It was also (not to mention) uncomfortable for me, because Lucy had to get the hot and heavy romance before I did!

"Do you have any idea how long of a kiss that is?" I scolded. "Five SECONDS is a long enough kiss. But five minutes? Goddamn it, Luciella!"

Luciella is Lucy's full first name. No one ever uses it, unless we're using an official title, teasing her, or someone's mad at her. In this case, I was mad at her.

"Wait a minute," Sodapop interrupted, "Dally, you told Lucy you loved her?"

I saw Becky gawk at Sodapop. She's been in love with him all her life, and I knew it wouldn't be long before he told her that he felt the same way. Based on the way things were going with Dally and Lucy, things would heat up between Becky and Sodapop soon enough.

To be honest, I hadn't really noticed the fact that Dally told Lucy he loved her. The thing that got to me was the kissing, but now that they've proclaimed love to each other? Lucy gets the big kiss and falls in love first and the guy she loves happens to love her back. It was so unfair!

"Yeah," Dally muttered, "and I meant it. I still mean it. I said it once and I'll say it again. I love you, Lucy."

Lucy looked like she was going to vomit. Her face was as white as a ghost, and she just looked scared. Maybe she wasn't ready for this sort of thing. I convinced myself of that, until she steadily replied:

"I love you too, Dal."

She was crying, which made me even angrier with her. Great, now she loved someone so much she was moved to tears. Not fair, not fair, NOT FAIR!

Jacklyn, the first to "aww" led everyone on to it except me.

"Come on, Kelcie," Steve Randle urged me. "Don't you think it's adorable?"

"I guess I'm just used to romance," I suggested.

"How can you be used to something you haven't had any of?" Two-Bit, again, mocked me. Why did it have to be him that did this? If it was Johnny, I'd say, "Oh Johnny, the reason I haven't had romance is because I was waiting for you!" And then he'd say, "Well, let's start now!" and then we'd kiss. But it wasn't Johnny, it was Two-Bit.

"Will you just shut up?" Ponyboy asked.

"Yeah, just shut up!" Lucy snapped. That was confusing. If Lucy hated me so much, why was she standing up for me?

"Well, I'm happy for you guys," Johnny said. "Dally loves Lucy and he doesn't love nobody. You sure about that Dal?"

Of course he was sure! Apparently, Dally knew how to love, and Johnny was just oblivious of my flirting with him for as long as I could remember.

"Yes, I'm sure about it!" Dally said sharply. "Why can't just believe it? I'll say it again! I love you, Lucy. I love you!"

Oh, bullshit. So he loved her. All that meant was that we were wrong about Dally and Lucy got something before me, yet again.

"Dally, please, not now," Lucy begged him. Not now? She didn't want it to be public? Of course she wanted it to be public! She loved all of this, and she especially loved that she was making me insane.

"He loves her all right," Sodapop assured us. There was more, but I wasn't listening. I was staring at Johnny, and he could have just admitted he loved me even though I was seventeen and he was twenty. And why did age matter? After all, Lucy was eighteen and Dally was twenty-two, which was a bigger difference than the one between Johnny and me!

"What the hell is going on in here?" Darry asked, coming in from work. Great, maybe he could talk some sense into their heads. But then I realized that he'd be happy for Lucy, considering she's his little sister.

"A lot of drama!" Jacklyn called to him.

When he asked what we were dramatizing things for, Lucy explained everything smoothly, honestly, and perfectly. There was no reason for it not to be perfect, because Lucy was talking. I hated perfect people.

Then, when she finished, Darry laughed. He laughed! Could it be that someone was actually siding with me on this one? No way! Johnny, I thought, wait until you see me with someone on my side. Then you'll want me for sure!

"Lucy," he said, "it seems so weird for you to be with a guy, especially Dallas, but why do you have to turn it into such a big deal?"

Good, it was my time to shine.

"Because it is a big deal!" I screeched. "Darry, Two-Bit said that Dally and Lucy were kissing on the porch for five minutes! That was just one kiss! I mean, I thought five seconds was a pretty long kiss, but five minutes is crazy!" They kissed on the front porch where everyone could see it!"

I turned to Lucy, narrowed my blue eyes at her and sneered:

"I still don't know what the hell is wrong with you, Luciella."

Shit, I probably shouldn't have done that. Now Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy would go crazy on me. They hated it when anyone gave Lucy a hard time or scolded her in any way, even if it was a member from our gang.

"You shut your mouth, Kelcie Valentino!" Ponyboy yelled at me. "There's nothing the matter with my sister and you know it! Why is it that whenever she's got something you want, you treat her so badly?"

Damn, he nailed that one. I did treat Lucy pretty badly when something happened to her first, but she didn't treat me like peaches and cream either.

"Kelcie, leave Lucy alone! She's beautiful, smart, and just amazing!" Sodapop told me off as he started to cry. "Just because you feel inferior to her for some reason doesn't mean that you can go around making her feel like shit all the time!"

Sodapop cursed, and no one seemed to believe it. He hardly ever cursed because he was an angel. It was hard to believe considering he's a Greaser, but he hardly ever swore and had an angel reputation.

"Listen and listen good, Kelcie," Darry snapped at me. "Lucy is a great girl, and you need to stop belittling her when something good happens to her and not you. You're not five, so I'm not going to make you apologize, but I think you're wrong."

I glared at Lucy, hoping she'd get the message. She didn't seem to be responding to that, because she was looking at Dally longingly. Even when she had him, she looked perfect wanting him to look at her.

"How did all of this go from Dal and Lucy from Kelcie being jealous of Lucy?" Johnny asked. Oh, fabulous. Johnny thought I was jealous. Well, I wasn't jealous, I was just angry that Lucy had to be perfect.

"Can we all just get along for two minutes?" Johnny asked.

"We can and we have," Becky said briskly. "And I think we should all stop before someone sets someone else on fire."

I wanted to kill her. You never said the word fire around Johnny, Ponyboy and Dally. It's a long story, and it scared me so shitless I never want to talk about it again. But you never say it around them! We call it "The Deathly F Word" now, which is actually worse than the real f word, which not even Dally likes to say.

A lot more happened, and I just want to skip to why I hate perfect people part two. Becky said that she was happy for Dally and Lucy and then she said, "I love you, Lucy!"

Then Two-Bit made a joke that ended with, "But this whole Becky in love with Lucy thing? All these years I thought you had a thing for Soda."

Which she did, of course! But how could he have known? The only people that knew other than the Greaser girls were Johnny, Darry and Ponyboy, and there's no way that even Ponyboy told him about it.

A little more time passed, which I passed by looking at Johnny and wondering when he'd run up to me and kiss me so passionately that even the Socs he hates would feel pleasure. But then another perfect person interrupted me.

"Hey Soda?" Becky asked.

Oh great. She was really going to do it, wasn't she? She was going to ask Sodapop to be her boyfriend. I'd love it if he rejected her.

"Yeah Becky?" he asked nervously.

"You know how Two-Bit said he thought I was into you? Well, the truth is that I am into you. Are you into me?"

"Becky, I've always loved you," he admitted, and pulled her in for a soft, short kiss on the lips. That was acceptable, but why did they both have to get boyfriends before me?

Darry said that if one more couple got together that night, he'd quit his job and Lucy and Ponyboy would have to make livings on their own. Jacklyn stared at Ponyboy longingly, and I was more discrete and looked out the window rather than at Johnny.

"Keep on, Jacklyn," Lucy encouraged. She was the guidance counselor too, how uncanny!

It got late, and Two-Bit got drunk within each hour. He tried to make out with me a lot, but I knew he knew I'd never let him. One, I hated him, and two, my heart belonged to Johnny even though I knew his heart didn't belong to me.

"I ain't taking him home," I told everyone. "Somebody else will have to. I ain't waking up next to him tomorrow morning. Chances are he probably won't even know how he got there."

"I'll take him home, Kelcie," Darry assured me. "It's one in the morning, did your mom know you'd be out this late?"

"I told her I'd be home around two or three, so she'll be glad I'm home earlier. Plus, most kids who go out on Friday night don't come home until five or six in the morning on Sunday, and I mean the Sunday that's actually Monday."

"I'm surprised you don't go home at nine-thirty like a good girl should," Becky asked, getting herself a can of Diet Pepsi from the fridge.

Like a good girl? There was no way I was a good girl! I could be out all year and never come home if I wanted to, I just didn't! That was what Dally did, and I knew his relationship with Lucy would never last, because he'd be out beating people up. And she'd be alone at home, knocked up, and waiting for Dally to come home, if he ever did. Johnny would be devoted, so I knew that I'd win in the end.

"Well, if you're insulting my ways of life, you can go fuck yourself, Becky!" I cried. There, I actually had the guts to use the word, and I never did.

"Becky doesn't accept the offer," Two-Bit began. "She's got Soda to help her with that one now!"

I smoothed out my skirt, which he hadn't made fun of and took off. I don't know where I drove off to that night, but I spent most of the night thinking. Not once did I stop driving to sleep, but I did feel the temptation to many times. I thought about Lucy and Dally and how they'd probably end up getting married and might last because of how incredibly lucky Lucy really is. Then I thought about how I had insulted Becky and what they could be saying about me right now, and I knew they were calling me a bitch. At last I thought about Johnny and how he would never fall in love with me, and everything I had ever hoped for might as well drown in the millions of tears I must have cried that night. Through them I couldn't see very well and I almost ran into a stop sign. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they got better.


	4. Chapter 4

"Happy birthday, Kelcie!" Jacklyn cried. "You're eighteen!"

It was a scorching hot day in August, and my birthday. Everyone was there for me, and Johnny, who still wasn't my boyfriend, was nowhere near me as he stared off into space, probably thinking about how ugly I looked in my yellow sundress. He looked at Lucy and then looked away, which probably signaled that he was thinking about how gorgeous she looked in her new violet colored dress. Lucy could make anything work.

"Thanks guys," I gushed. "Now I just have to make it through college."

"Eww, I'm scared!" Becky squealed. She hid behind Sodapop and he put his arm around her.

"Beck," he comforted, "consider this an adventure. You've always been smarter than me, now you can be even smarter."

It was so cute it was disgusting. Lucy walked over to Dally and he kissed her. They were talking and no one could understand them. Then Ponyboy motioned over to Jacklyn and he stared stroking her hair, telling her that she'd be fine, too. That's right, the day we graduated, Jacklyn started dating Ponyboy. Everyone had a boyfriend but me, and now everyone had forgotten about how it was my birthday.

Johnny walked over to me, and I completely panicked. He had never confronted me before. In the past, I had done all the confronting! What was I supposed to do now?

"Happy birthday," he muttered, actually looking me in the eye. I never noticed how dark his eyes were until he looked at me the way he did.

"Thanks, Johnny," I whispered. Looking at him, I realized that I should just give up. He'd never just walk up to me and kiss me. Until he did.

Johnny kissed me on my right cheek and I think I almost fainted. Just when I thought I'd give up on my fantasies, it came true. Now if only he'd move a little to the left so he could kiss my lips.

"Wow," I said, still whispering, "What was that for?"

"Because I like you," Johnny confessed. "You know, people have been trying to tell me that we could never be because we're so different. But I know that we can make it work."

"Yes," I agreed, "we can."

Then it happened. He kissed me on the lips. Johnny Cade, the guy I had been in love with almost secretly for years was kissing me. And I was kissing him back.

"You look beautiful in that dress, Kelcie," he said.

"Thanks."

We walked inside to my room, and even though he had been in there before, it was so much different now. He continued to kiss me, and it felt like more than just lips pressing against each other. There was so much passion there, and I didn't know if even Lucy and Dally felt that when they kissed.

Before I knew it, he was lifting my dress off of me. I heard it land on the ground, and then I got really nervous. I was in my room in my nylons, kissing Johnny. My parents weren't home, and the only person who would get mad would be Darry, but he didn't care anymore because I was eighteen now. Oh gosh. This was actually happening.

BAM! We flopped down on a mattress and this felt so awkward and so right. For a few minutes, I thought I was dreaming and would wake up complaining, but then I realized it was real. Johnny kept kissing me and it was more than just kissing now. Then I thought that none of this would be fine. What would happen because of it? He tried to take my mind off of that by getting closer to me.

This took forever, but when we finally agreed to stop, I realized that it had only been twenty minutes.

"Should we go back outside?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, but we have to make it look like nothing happened," I told him.

We dressed ourselves again, and it took another twenty minutes to get my hair right. Johnny had gone outside again, but I knew he wasn't going to tell anyone about what just happened.

The girls were sitting at the cake table, talking and then they stopped when they saw me.

"Hey Kelcie," Jacklyn greeted me. "It's been what, an hour since you were last out here?"

"Forty minutes," I corrected. "We need to have a girl talk. Now."

Becky looked at Lucy and they looked at each other. They nodded and followed me into my room. How could they know already?

I led them in and shut the door behind me. "Do you guys know why Johnny and I went away and no one knew where we were?" I asked.

"Well, I mean," Lucy began, "I kind of had a feeling after a while. We did see him kiss you, after all."

"And you figured it would just build from there?" I yelled. "Did you honestly think I was going to do that with him?"

"Yeah."

I looked down at the floor and murmured, "You were right." She was right, as always. Oh well, at least I won with this. There was no way that had happened to Lucy and Dally before it happened to me.

"Wait a minute," Jacklyn realized. The poor thing was sitting on the bed too. "Are you saying that you and Johnny? - Oh jeez, I'm sitting on the bed!"

"Shut up, Jacklyn!" I commanded. "You're going to have to get over that fear soon enough. You'll be eighteen in November, so what makes you think Ponyboy isn't going to want to himself?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Right. So, am I the first girl this happened to out of the four of us? Jacklyn's seventeen, so that's illegal, Becky and Soda said they'd wait, and that just doesn't seem like you, Lucy."

The three of them all traded glances and then looked back at me. Oh shit, I came in second again!

"Beck, did you break the promise?" I asked hopefully. If she had, it would have been better than following after Lucy again.

"Nope," she replied. That meant it had to be Lucy.

"You and Dally?" I screamed. "You're serious about that? When?"

"The night of our graduation," Lucy answered. "That's when I told him we could. It had been planned since the day after he became my boyfriend, Kelcie, so please don't be mad at me. But it was pretty amazing. Don't tell anyone, but it was a first for both of us."

A first for both of them? Dally had a handful of girlfriends before Lucy and it was a first for both of them. I didn't believe it.

"So, you're saying that even though Dally's had other girlfriends, he never slept with them?" I asked, still shocked.

"That's right," Lucy confirmed. "He said he was telling the truth, and I believe it. Kelcie, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it."

I hadn't even thought of that. Jacklyn and Becky knew, and they had kept it a secret from me. What would I have done?

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Don't kill her," Becky sneered. "She was only trying to save you from yourself. Last time something big and romantic happened to Lucy, you almost killed her and Dally. It was for your own good, Kelcie."

"I wanted to tell you," Lucy explained, "but Becky just wouldn't let me. Don't hurt her, either."

"Girls, I'm not violent!" I cried. "But I do want to be trusted around here!"

No words from any of them. They were probably thinking about how much of a bitch I was, as usual.

"Let's go back outside," Jacklyn whispered. "I think we could all use it."

We did, and Johnny walked up to me the instant he saw me. He was probably going to say that he wished it had never happened and he wished Lucy wasn't with Dally so he could get with her.

"Does this mean you're my girl?" he asked.

I was shocked. "Yes!" I squeaked.

He took my hand and we walked over to the other Greasers.

"Guess what?" I asked them.

"What?" Ponyboy asked.

"Johnny and I are together!" I shouted.

Applause, just the way I wanted it. Johnny gave me a small hug, and I gave him one back. Things were going to get better, even if Two-Bit was going to harass me because he was still in love with me.


	5. Chapter 5

In the next year, I was losing to Lucy and Becky, the perfect people. First, Dally asked Lucy to marry him, and a month after, Sodapop and Becky announced the same thing. Jacklyn and Ponyboy were a much stronger couple than Johnny and me, but they weren't getting married just yet.

At Lucy's wedding, I was one of the bridesmaids. Becky, of course, was the maid of honor, and I was just a lowly bridesmaid. I wore my glasses to the church and when Lucy saw me, she shook her head.

"What?" I asked. "You said you didn't care how I did my makeup."

"No, that's not it," she said. "Kelcie, you look fabulous. It's just the glasses that are setting you off. You're not wearing the glasses that you hate. Not at my wedding."

"Do you want me at your wedding, Lucy Curtis?" I snapped.

"Kelcie, no," she pleaded. "Don't, don't think that. Of course I want you at my wedding. I just don't want you to be complaining about how your glasses made you look bad in years to come."

I glared at her and took my glasses off. Sure, I wasn't blind, but whenever I take off my glasses right away, I can't see very well. Johnny walked up to me and gave me a hug.

"Hey," he said. "What happened to your glasses?"

"Lucy says I can't wear them," I sneered. "Who does she think she is, anyway?"

"The bride," Johnny answered, laughing. "Everything's gotta be perfect on her wedding day."

"It's all perfect everyday when you're Lucy!" I wailed.

He looked at me with that sort of blank look, which usually passes for deep thought or at least the notion that someone's home. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I finally asked.

"Because it's all about beating Lucy with you," he responded absently. "Look, Kelcie, I love you, but you're gonna need to feel good about yourself for once in your life."

Nothing. I said nothing because I knew Johnny was right, and that I should feel better about myself. My self-esteem swung from low to high to in the middle and back to low again. In the past Becky has said that my amps are always one or ten, never in the middle. Now I was thinking she might be right.

"I'll see you up at the altar, Kelcie," Johnny whispered and gave me a small kiss on the cheek. By now I was really wondering when he'd break up with me. It had been almost two years since Two-Bit shouted "Johnny and Kelcie got it on!" and Darry said that he doubted my love. He still hadn't broken up with me, and things hadn't really changed.

As planned, Dally and Lucy got married and a month later we all did the same thing for Soda and Becky's wedding. That wasn't much different that the first wedding, except I didn't wear my glasses in fear that Lucy would make me take them off again. They were married too, and at the reception, I was a bit drunk and started asking Johnny questions I'd probably never ask him if I was sober.

"Johnny, we've been to two weddings for our friends," I slurred. "And it probably won't be long before Ponyboy's proposing to Jacklyn. Then it'll just be me, the single one. When are you gonna ask me to marry you?"

I don't remember the look on Johnny's face, but I do remember tasting peach wine cooler. He was looking at me though, processing my words for forever. It might have been thirty seconds.

"Gee, Kelcie, I don't know," he muttered. "Do you really mean that?"

"Of course I really mean it! You're the only guy I've ever been with, and you're the only guy I've ever loved. All I want to do is marry you."

"Maybe we should wait until Pony and Jacklyn get married. He's probably already thinking about it anyway."

"No! We gotta get married before them!"

"Don't have this be all about the competition."

"Life is competition, Johnny."

Again, he was silent. Finally he said:

"I think we should wait until you're not drunk anymore. See if you really mean what you're saying."

"But Johnny, I do mean it!"

"Okay Kelcie, we'll wait and see."

But I did mean it. I think.


	6. Chapter 6

Things between Johnny and me were going very slowly. And in a way I respected that, but in a way I wanted it to move faster. He never said anything again about marrying me, and it was a month after Sodapop and Becky's wedding. And in that month, Lucy had big, big news. News that would make me enraged with her.

In just two months of being married to Dally, he had already gotten her pregnant. They were going to be parents. Johnny and I weren't even married!

A while after Lucy told the gang about the baby, I resented her quietly but definitely. Johnny told me I was being immature, and I told him to shut up. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but he knew how upset I was with her. Lucy just didn't have to know why I was so upset with her.

Not long after she told us, Lucy and I had a discussion about it. This discussion was key to the biggest change I've ever been through in my life.

We were alone at my place because I lived alone.

"Why are you into this, anyway?" I screamed at her. Good, now I could yell at her and she would be defenseless. No big brothers, best friends or husband to take her side.

"Into what?" she asked.

"Oh, don't play dumb, Lucy! You know what I mean. Look, you got married when you were twenty and now you're twenty-one. Two months later you found out you were gonna be a mother. How do you manage with this speed? It's way too fast, and I don't like it."

She stared at me, but I don't think she was going to cry. Like most people, she was processing my words.

"Kelcie, it's my decision. Just because you want to move at the speed of a turtle on a hot day doesn't mean I have to!"

A turtle on a hot day. Seriously, that's what she said. I'll never forget that, either.

So I stood in front of her, glaring. She deserved all of this, because she knew that I wanted to come first all the time. And having someone who had the talent of coming first as your friend hurt like hell. Friend. Lucy Curtis was my friend, and now she was my enemy. At first I just competed with her, but it led to being an enemy. It was time to ask myself if this was what I really wanted.

"Very funny. I just don't understand why you think taking it slow is so hard."

"Because it wasn't for me! I was meant for what you might call rushing into things, but the things I rushed into were real! You and Johnny have something special too, but it's different. It's not bad, but the way Dal and I took things isn't either!"

Lucy gave me a disappointed look and ran out of my place. She was running to her old house, which was a half-mile away. I didn't chase after her just yet. After all, I didn't really want to.

About two hours later, Johnny came in. He saw me on the couch, staring ahead at the walls.

"Hi Kelcie. Why do you look so sad?"

"We need to go to the Curtis house now. Things need to be settled, whether they work out happily or not."

"Okay. Let's go now."

Johnny took my hand and we ran, the same way Lucy had, but it felt so much faster.


	7. Chapter 7

"Kelcie, what did you say to Lucy?" Sodapop asked when I walked in. Great, she came and squealed on me. And everyone was there.

"It wasn't just me!" I shrieked. "Lucy said things to! She said I moved at the speed of a turtle on a hot day!"

"I said there was nothing wrong with that!" she cried. Dally was stroking her hair, but she batted him away.

"Kelcie, you've been nothing but harm to us for years!" Ponyboy shouted. "All you've done is yell at us and treat us like garbage! What do you think of us, anyway?"

"To be honest," I whispered, "I think you're all great people."

"Then why do you think you're so much better?" Dally asked.

"I don't!" I yelled.

"There you go, yelling at us again!" Ponyboy accused.

"Look, maybe we should just try to settle things," Johnny offered. Have I mentioned how much I love him?

"Hang on, Johnny," Darry interrupted. "Right now I think we oughta tell Kelcie how we feel."

He stared me down, and I knew how possible it was for Darry to kill me. In my head, I prayed to God that I would survive through this.

"You've always been incredibly competitive with Lucy," he said with no emotion, "and I don't know why. What has she ever done to make you feel like you had to one-up her all the time?"

"She's always doing things first," I complained. "If I get kissed, Lucy's been kissed and it's longer and better than mine! Lucy gets everything before me, and not only is it before, she does better!"

"I thought you said you didn't like the way I was taking things!" Lucy cried. "You always seemed to think you were better than me!"

"Sometimes she does," Becky replied grimly.

"Do you honestly think Lucy's better than you?" Sodapop asked. "None of us is better than the other."

"That's not what you've been making it seem," I sneered.

"Me?" Soda asked, seeming pretty surprised.

"All of you, but mostly you three brothers. Through my entire life Lucy always gets praised and I'm always left in the dust! I thought you guys cared about me!"

"Kelcie, this is all in your head!" Dally yelled. "We've praised you just as much as we've praised Lucy. And why are you so jealous anyway?"

"Who knows?" I asked, throwing my hands in the air.

"You know!" Two-Bit cried. "And you think we don't care about you? Kelcie, we've always cared about you. There's no one that we care for more or less."

"Oh really?" I asked, staring him down. "Ever since I've known you, you've always been teasing me and making me feel stupid. You hate everything about me!"

"That's what he does!" Jacklyn squealed. "He's always been making jokes about all of us, and you've taken them too seriously."

"Yeah Kelcie!" Ponyboy agreed. "Don't you know how to take a joke?"

"What's so important about knowing how to take a joke?" I asked.

"So we don't get into situations like these!" Becky snarled.

"Fights like these happen!" I shouted. "Sometimes the best way to settle something is with words! You're all against me, and sometimes I think Johnny's the only one who cares about me!"

Every pair of eyes focused in on Johnny. I had put him in a spot, which I definitely shouldn't have done. Johnny didn't do well when he was put on a spot like this.

"What do you think of all this?" Jacklyn asked.

"Look, Kelcie, I care about you," he answered. "But I care about them too. And guys, I noticed something. You've been grilling her so hard on how she's so competitive with Lucy, but you're forgetting about someone else she's not been so sweet to."

"Johnny's right," Darry agreed. "We're forgetting about the way Kelcie treats Two-Bit."

Then all eyes traveled from Johnny to Two-Bit. He wasn't looking at anybody but me, his face serious, which was a rarity. All of a sudden, I felt myself feeling really bad for him. For as long as I could talk, I've been giving him the hardest time of anyone. Before I could start tearing up, he started talking.

"Kelcie, I don't know where I went wrong," he laughed a sad, unsure laugh. "I've always tried to be a friend to you, even if it meant a little joking around. Look, I'm sorry if you took it personally, but everyone needs to know how to take a joke at one time or another."

My rage came through and replaced my pity. Everyone needed to learn how to take a joke? Ha, not me! I walked up to him, and punched him in the face so hard that my hand hurt when I pulled it away.

Two-Bit fell down, clutching his forehead and making some type of groan signaling that he was in pain. I only felt some shame, but there must have been more there that I wasn't uncovering. Johnny put his hand on my shoulder, and I turned around to face him, giving me that blank look again. Only this time, it wasn't mysterious in a good way.

"What did you do that for?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"If someone had been offending you since you could speak, you'd do the same," I snapped.

"My folks have done nothing but abuse me since I was born. And I never once did what you just did till I knifed that Soc. But a punch coming from you at Two-Bit probably feels a lot worse than that knife did."

The others were just staring at me, and they all looked uncomfortable.

"You didn't have to punch the guy!" Ponyboy scoffed.

"He gave you that apology and you punched his lights out!" Darry was bellowing now. That's worse than any type of yelling in my opinion.

Two-Bit was sitting up by now, Jacklyn helping him be stable and probably assuring that he'd be okay.

"Hon, you know I hate to do this," Johnny whispered, his voice shaking because he was crying. "But I have to. Kelcie, I think we should break up."

That was when I decided this was a nightmare. I'd wake up and everything would be right again, and I could start over. Right now, I needed a redo more than anything. I needed something that would make Johnny take back his break up.

"Wait, what? You're breaking up with me?" I was almost speechless, even though I was expecting it. I just never knew it would be so hard.

"Yeah, and I'm really sorry. You gotta understand that if you're not gonna respect them, I can't be with you no more."

Then I got from angry to sad. Tears were hard to cope with when you didn't want them to come, which they did. And they came hard.

"Fine, if you all don't want me here, I'll leave. You never have to see me again." Just as I was reaching for the door, something pulled me back.

"YOU CAN'T GO!" It was Two-Bit.

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "And why wouldn't you want me to go?"

His eyes zoomed in on me and he looked like he felt more pain than anyone else in that room did. "Because I love you, Kelcie," he admitted. "I've always loved you. You mean too much to me, and I can't let you go."

Even after what he had said, I knew I had to leave. I couldn't take this anymore. Fighting was what I was meant to do, but if it was going to cause me so much pain, I had to leave. And I did.

I didn't hear anything when the door finally slammed behind me. Now that I had nowhere to go, I thought of where I could go so they never had to see me again. California might be safe, so that's where I decided to go. And I wouldn't tell them where I was getting my redo either. Maybe my life was meant to be without them after all.

Johnny, I kept thinking. Johnny. Johnny. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Did he really want to break up with me? Was I asking for it? I know I was. But I'd never forget Johnny Cade, and he was the one part of leaving that made me want to stay. But I wouldn't. I couldn't.


	8. Chapter 8

Life in California was easier, even though I had no family there and I was on my own most of the time. I became what they classify as a Soc, and everyone's real nice. No one knows where I came from or why I moved all of a sudden, they just know that I'm not a California native. Jacklyn is the only Greaser I talk to sometimes, but that's maybe once a year. The last I heard was that she and Ponyboy were married and Lucy's baby was a girl. Johnny's new girl is someone named Alyson, and I only remembered her name. But if she's Johnny's now, she must be a pretty sweet girl.

The life I had as a Greaser for so long was a mistake. But it was one of those mistakes you just have to live through or else life isn't worth living. Conformity does make me sick, and I've certainly never conformed. After all, I'm not big on wrong turns. Being a Greaser was the biggest wrong turn of my life, but taking it made me realize that you've gotta take a few, because life is only life when you screw up and fix it up again.

THE END


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